Well, gosh, Liberal is capable of actually being funny? Colour me enlightened.
Not sure if you’re responding to anything I wrote, but in case you are, allow me to clarify my position.
I didn’t say he was being funny; I said he was making a joke. Having served on a couple of submarines, each with an executive officer, and an engineer, I have learned that it is a mistake to assume that making jokes is the same as being funny.
And judging by some of the responses my jokes get around here, I’d say that it’s a fairly widespread bit of knowledge.
I couldn’t agree more.
A slight deviation from the hospitals theme, but could I mention that charitable giving to humanitarian, non-religious organisations is very high indeed in countries with a more secular culture, northern Europe for example.
It is only in recent years that this trend has spread to more traditionally religious countries like Italy and Spain. Could it be a coincidence that these countries have simultaneously undergone a transition to secularism? No cites, but I can dig them up if necessary.
In the humanitarian aid sector some who work there are motivated by religious ethics, but in my experience it is dominated by agnostics and atheists.
When we look at the grassroots organisations and social movements in developing countries, like Latin America where the dominant culture is religious, many of the activists are non-religious (usually from a left-wing background) and some are former trainee priests who chose that avenue because it was the only way someone from a poor background in a poor country could exercise a vocation for helping others. Once they realised that they didn’t have to give up earthly pleasures in order to be good people, they moved on to social work and other secular pursuits.
Oh, and some of them have a sense of humour too, as do some religious people. How can anyone seriously claim that the two are connected.
RE: the second half of the OP.
It is a common misconception that because a person does not believe in an afterlife, that person must feel free to do anything they want, or more specifically anything the person of faith wants to do but refrains from doing because the person of faith is afraid the eteranl lake of fire.
Wanton acts of destruction? Because I don’t believe in an afterlife, I would think it is ok to just smash things up?
Huge orgies? Well besides STDs and the difficulty of rounding up enough like minded people, some of them may still be unattractive.
Just because I’m not begging for a treat, (Heaven) or cringing from a punishment (Hell) does not mean I have a code of behavior that includes the laws of my state and my own conscience.
Gotcha.
Speak for yourself, pal. Because this particular heathen had random sex with seven strangers (males and females, forget what the ratio was), torched three churches, two synagogues and one mosque, mowed down a few pedestrians (not the sort of thing I bother counting), and handstabbed the clerk at the video store — while running out with the DVDs and the microwave popcorn I’d stolen of course. And that was before lunch.
Not sure what the afternoon will bring. Will keep you posted. Or not. As a heathen, I don’t have much use for truth.
“It’s astonishing. Frankly astonishing. The man actually has charisn’tma.”
“Your meaning?”
“I mean he’s so dreadful he fascinates people.”
–Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay
I started reading this thread in hopes of getting a few chuckles. I read the first several replies, skipped ahead, read a little more, but my eyes just kept on glazing over. I scrolled through most of the first page. I didn’t even click on page 2. I just realized that I was staring open mouthed at my computer screen for the past five minutes. I think I fell asleep. There is some drool on my desk.
Man. Athiests are no fun.
I’m an atheist, and I encounter this argument with frightening frequency.
My response is to point out that if you’re sure that your God, in exchange for worshipping him, will forgive you of all sins (which admittedly is not claimed by all religions, nor even all Christian denominations) then you’re similarly free to commit any and all sins you want.
IOW, if you’re sure the IPU’s gonna bail you out, he might as well not exist.
Oh, and FTR, the only one of the sins below that I’ve partaken of is the orgy thing – and it’s overrated.
Its difficult being “fun” and “right” at the same time.
Apparently you confused this thread with “Night At the Improv”. :wally
Now that’s funny! 
This was the first post that made me smile in this whole thread. And then I wiped away some of my own drool.
Inane posts make you smile? Who knew…